30 October 2015

Guh. Fitness pet peeve.

Hey guys,

What's up? Sorry for the little MIA but something has been nipping and bugging me all day today that I had to quickly write out and get off my chest.

In the fitness industry, inevitably there will be people who are competitive. Who enjoy bragging about their achievements out aloud and want other people to notice and be praised. Honestly, I know because I was once like that but now I am more than happy to share my achievements because personally to myself, they were my own micro goals that I had wanted to achieve.

Although, quickly wanting to get to my point is the fact that, no matter how hard you have worked to achieve your current goal, there will always be that someone who will push you back down and make themselves feel more superior to you. I already dislike it when another female degrades another female. What the shit man. Women should have a supportive sisterhood, we should be praising and helping each other. But jealousy is a really stupid thing. And yes, I was once down that road but I would NEVER publicly humiliate or go out of my way to abuse someone and put them down. If you ain't got nothing nice to say, don't say it at all.

What is bothering me the most today is when a man degrades a woman. I'm not saying ALL men. I am in no way generalising them all to be like that, of course there are a select few. Like today's example was; my coach at school pointed out that I was a powerlifter. Surprise? I am sort of. I just lift heavy shit for the fun of it because I want to be able to test my own abilities. But, I am fully capable and proud of my very own abilities.

So, out of curiosity a classmate who happened to be interested in powerlifting approached me and asked me what my max for bench press, squats and deadlifts were. As you would, I guess? To which I happily answered because I am proud of my personal results. Instead of going "Holy shit, wow. That's amazing for a girl" he's response was rather "Oh, that's my warm up. I can do this much" and wherever he had felt threatened by my numbers, he had the audacity to go "BUT, do you wear a belt?"

What the fucking shit, mate.

I happily answered, yes because it was for safety precautions. No fucking shit I will wear a belt if I am carrying over DOUBLE my body weight on my fucking spine, pushing and pulling a hell of a lot more too. I am NOT going to risk fucking up my form and getting injured or permanently damaging my spine. I have always been careful and I absolutely take pride in looking after my body. So, it rather surprised me when he mentioned that he was out of lifting for a while because he had gotten injured. You only get injured from poor form or because you don't take proper precautions or because you're an ego lifter.

I apologise for such a public rant but it really hit me and bothered me HARD today. I'm currently studying to become a personal trainer and I understand that I need to be surrounded by supportive peers not to mention create a positive atmosphere so you can go out to spread and feed that happiness to other people. I just didn't appreciate the need for someone to tell me he was better than me because he could lift 20kg more than I can or he can pull more reps.

I guess the fact that I am a woman who can lift over 100% or even almost 200% of her own body weight slipped his mind. I'm not bragging (sorry if it sounds like that) no one else in the class is aware that I enjoy powerlifting for recreational purposes. I actually haven't told anyone aside from my coach that I lift. It didn't happen overnight either. I worked hard, each and every day for the past 6 months to purely strengthen myself and my body. I'm still growing and learning a shit load more. So, personally he had no right to judge or degrade me.

Phew. Okay. Rant is officially over. I have more happy news I will get to posting. I haven't updated my space for a long time in terms of my wedding but there is sooooo much I want to show you guys!!!